Octopus, Dreaming

October 1, 2019 6:23 AM

Watching a sleeping octopus cycle through various camouflage colors, as she appears to dream of hunting, captured on video for the first time. From PBS Nature's Octopus: Making Contact, premiering tomorrow.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (24 comments total)

I was at a wedding reception recently that was held at the local aquarium. (A+ reception location, would pet a manta ray while eating cake again.) I made a bee-line to my favorite tank, the one with the cuttlefish. (Yes, I know, not octopodes.) As I stood there gawking, the other folks at the reception that I knew came by and were like, Whatcha doin'? Just admiring the cuttlefish, I said. Oh yeah?, they said. What's so special about them?

Hang on, just watch them for a second, I said.

*four cuttlefish float by rapidly changing colors as they go*

Converts were made.

Anyway, I just texted my husband a link to the show website and a lot of capslock ensued.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:49 AM on October 1, 2019 [30 favorites]

Okay, I'm not having some Mandela effect scenario - there definitely was a video a year or two ago of a different octopus going through a similar thing (altho this new vid is a bit more dramatic). Prior vid shows color shifts starting about halfway through.
posted by FatherDagon at 6:56 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Awww she's dreaming of the devouring reality.
posted by adept256 at 7:19 AM on October 1, 2019 [9 favorites]

I watched that with one hand over my mouth and my eyes open wide. I know we can't know that she's dreaming and that we can only know that another human is dreaming because they tell us afterwards that they were dreaming, and that we just guess that babies, and puppies, and kittens, are dreaming because it seems like they are reacting to things that aren't happening. But that octopus sure looks like she's dreaming. It looks just like a puppy doing the running-barking dream.

Gosh cephalopods are great.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 7:27 AM on October 1, 2019 [14 favorites]

MetaFilter: dreaming of the devouring reality.
posted by Fizz at 8:16 AM on October 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

Do octopodes dream of aquatic sheep?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:29 AM on October 1, 2019 [15 favorites]

That is a very cool video, but if the octopus is indeed dreaming, then I would suggest it has a sleep disorder. I wouldn't want my camouflage going all randomly flashy technicolor on me if I were asleep!
posted by coppertop at 9:45 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Posts tagged with cephalopods, octopus, and cuttlefish previously.

Imagine if human culture was mediated primarily not by language, but by living animated multicolor patterned realtime display of thought - conscious and not - on our skin. Just whoa.
posted by lalochezia at 10:14 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

living animated multicolor patterned realtime display of thought

A bit like people's fashion and makeup choices.
posted by dazed_one at 10:16 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Or even blushing.
posted by dazed_one at 10:17 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

youze people have some crazy high-level realtime neurofeedback animated wardrobes and cheeks.
posted by lalochezia at 10:19 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I also thought about how this could be maladaptive, coppertop, but then I remembered that most octopodes are going to try to find cover to sleep. I mean, for possible example. She probably is aware that she's in a totally predator-free zone.

dazed_one what if blushing, but hundreds of shades and patterns to match every feeling
what is the color of remembering something from when you were a child that you're still embarrassed about
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 10:21 AM on October 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

Octopuses are like the animals you'd get if God was Willy Wonka.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:30 AM on October 1, 2019 [5 favorites]

if?
posted by lalochezia at 10:36 AM on October 1, 2019 [11 favorites]

Imagine if human culture was mediated primarily not by language, but by living animated multicolor patterned realtime display of thought

Speaking as a former teenage boy, HAHAHAHAHA NO THANK YOU.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:40 AM on October 1, 2019 [18 favorites]

True Facts About the Octopus!
posted by mfu at 11:08 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Felt sad about this intelligent creature in a tiny aquarium. Or was this just a corner of a big one?
posted by M. at 11:54 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Speaking as a former teenage boy, HAHAHAHAHA NO THANK YOU.

Octopuses are semelparous. Basically, they bang once and die -- the males stop eating and starve to death. The females lay long enough to lay eggs and guard them and circulate water onto them, and then die either shortly after the eggs hatch or a few days before.

Apparently, at least in the females, it has to do with a gland in their optic nerve that acts as the octopus's pituitary system and drives the maternal instincts. Mating triggers both maternal activity, and a self-destruct mechanism, so that in captivity, even if a female octopus isn't subject to being predated during senescence, she will enter a terminal phase and [do some really distressing things described in the link].

So if we're talking about what-if-humans-were-more-like-octopuses, it leads some interesting thought-experiments about how many humans would survive past their teenage years if humans were also like, "you fuck, you die."
posted by joyceanmachine at 12:03 PM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

So, considering the fact that the hatchling octopi get no guidance from an "experienced" member of their species, and yet they (as a species), survive; what kind of hard wired learning network is build into them? I mean, they have to start "figuring stuff out" right effing now, or they get eaten, and that's the same for bugs, but bugs don't go on to solve problems like unscrewing the lid on the glass jar with food inside, or killing the sharks in the aquarium tank at night when no one is looking, or (insert your favorite octopus story here), with an extremely limited lifespan. How much is "pre-programmed" so to speak? Is there something flat-wormesque going on? Sorry if I'm rambling here. I am just continually amazed by these creatures.
posted by coppertop at 12:54 PM on October 1, 2019 [5 favorites]

They've recently found that at least one species of octopus has multiple clutches, as well as what looks like pair-bonding and other social behaviors.

All hail the larger Pacific striped octopus, future inheritor of the seas.
posted by tavella at 12:54 PM on October 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

Neon meate dream of a octafish...
posted by Devonian at 1:19 PM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Octopuses are semelparous

Cool: a word I had not previously encountered. From the wiki link:

A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death

So like characters in a slasher film, then. (I am now pondering an all-cephalopod reboot of Friday the 13th in which the victims merely shrug at Jason. Tell me that an eight-limbed shrug would not be worth seeing.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:35 PM on October 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

The Soul of an Octopus: How One of Earth’s Most Alien Creatures Illuminates the Wonders of Consciousness
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Scientists Gave MDMA to Octopuses—and What Happened Was Profound
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